Are the teachers having trouble with students using their smartphones in class yet?Is it standard classroom policy to have the phones off?

When I was teaching in the US, we had a no cellphone policy, but the teachers could not enforce it. Students were crafty in how they hide their phones and routinely text each other, even cheating on exams using their phones.Teachers could never prove the cheating unless they subpoenaed the student's phone bill log.Some teachers experimented with lessons having the students look up stuff on their phones, but those were the idealistic ones.Other teachers ended up getting a cell signal jammer for their classrooms.Do the teachers in Taiwan have to resort to buying a cell signal jammer for their classroom yet?

When I was a kid, we weren't even allowed to use slide rules in math class. This was WAY before the advent of pocket calculators. Guess them old fogeys are feeling pretty damn stupid now. Well, they're probably all dead by now, but you get the picture. My neices in Scotland don't carry schoolbags any more, as the school has provided them with ipads that have all their textbooks right in there.But never fear! You can join me on a weekly bitchfest about them damned new-fangled gadgets and how they're destroying the youth of today. Not like in MY day and age, when we had to walk to school for 14 miles through the snow, in AUGUST! Uphill both ways.

Whenever I'm worried about cheating, I make everyone give me their books or whatnot and collect them at the front of the class. You could do a similar thing with phones but you'd want to maybe label everyone's phone (if it's a big class).

In Australia we had to put our phones in our bags and leave our bags at the front of the classroom. If a phone so much as vibrated during the exam and the teacher figure out who's it was, you got a 0 for the test.

tsukinodeynatsu wrote:In Australia we had to put our phones in our bags and leave our bags at the front of the classroom. If a phone so much as vibrated during the exam and the teacher figure out who's it was, you got a 0 for the test.

I do this with my students during exams and also have to with one of my classes on a daily basis as they are so bad with their phones. My students are sneaky, but I have a rule that if I see it being used during class, I put it on my desk. The second time it happens I send them with a referral note to the Student Services Dept. to get an official warning and talking to by administrators. If they get sent to Admin twice, they then get referred to the Dean and can possibly get expelled.

All of our students are getting iPads this week, so that is sure to create other issues....but I am happy at the prospect of a paperless classroom nonetheless. Will just have to keep a closer eye on everything.

Easy.Shoebox. Collect them(turned off) at the beginning of class. 99% of kids have phones. There should be 99% of the class' phones as well. Bell goes give them back. Works like a charm. If they complain about it then they have a choice. Put it in the box or don't bring it.Emergency? Call the school!Done like dinner.BUTWhat gets me are those touch screen Nano MP5 watches. They sit and f*ck around with the screen. Technically it's a watch but I am getting this close to putting those watches in the box as well.

baberenglish wrote:Easy.Shoebox. Collect them(turned off) at the beginning of class. 99% of kids have phones. There should be 99% of the class' phones as well. Bell goes give them back. Works like a charm. If they complain about it then they have a choice. Put it in the box or don't bring it.Emergency? Call the school!Done like dinner.BUTWhat gets me are those touch screen Nano MP5 watches. They sit and f*ck around with the screen. Technically it's a watch but I am getting this close to putting those watches in the box as well.

Make a more general rule: any electronic device that is likely to distract you from class goes in the box. That way, you won't have to worry about making up a million "what goes in the box?" rules

Oh. And nobody leaves until everyone has all their stuff back. (Prevent theft).

Indiana wrote:All of our students are getting iPads this week, so that is sure to create other issues....

This is a school in Taiwan or UAE?

UAE. They made the decision last week and immediately sent a delegation to the US to procure 10,000 of them, for all of the students and Instructors at my university. Naturally they didn't think anything through before they jumped, so I fully expect the whole idea to turn into a big, fat mess for most classes!

On a lighter note, it is not just my university doing this, it is ALL of the national universities in the UAE, so it might be a great time to buy stock in Apple!!!

It pisses me off big time when students check words on their i - phone dictionaries while I'm trying to elict or explain the meaning of the word. I teach ielts and and general english and when I see a student checking their phone, I grab a dictionary and plonk it in front of them. In fact, I might start a new policy and banning them from the classroom, unless the student is expecting a very important call.

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If you're traveling overseas, do yourself a favor and bring a pen. You would not believe how many people travel without one, and you need one to fill out the immigration forms. I carry some, but I can’t carry 200.From "13 Things Your Flight Attendant Won't Tell You"